


With No Air

by interorbitalteeth



Series: My Oxygen [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Andy keeps being reminded of Quyhn, BAMF Nicky, Cults, I kinda drag Millenialists through the mud here, I tried using a clunky breathing metaphor I hope it works, Joe is captured and Nicky and the others rescue him, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Nile, Religious Cult, Rescue Mission, Vengeful Nicky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/interorbitalteeth/pseuds/interorbitalteeth
Summary: Joe is captured, trapped without oxygen. Nicky will do anything to be able to breathe calmly again.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: My Oxygen [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865212
Comments: 7
Kudos: 207





	With No Air

Joe revives in captivity.

“HELP!” he screams first, and then “NICKY!” because Nicky isn't here and oh my god Nicky isn't here with him, where is he where IS HE? “NICKY! NICKY! NICOLO!”

It's pitch black, and he can barely move, but he is clearly being moved, can feel the bumps in the road knocking into him. He takes a calming breath, and assesses the situation. The walls of the box he's in are soft for about half an inch, then hard steel, and there's two openings at the top, one on the edge all the way down and the other across, halfway down. And it's sealed tight, with a rubber gasket all along the edge. A casket. He's in a sealed metal casket, being transported over land.

Joe wonders if the others are with him, in their own caskets, or if he's alone. Fear and anger slice through him at both options. He begins to tear at the lining of his prison, the polyester-covered foam padding only secured with glue and fabric staples. Getting through the rest of the casket will be much harder, though. And he's quickly starting to run out of air. He wonders how much air he used up by screaming.

How long has he been in here? Where are they taking him? Are they planning to bury him alive? He pushes at the lid with all his strength, trying to break the rubber seal. This must be how Quyhn feels, Joe realizes with horror. Completely trapped and helpless, utterly alone. More motivation for him to break free. He can't let that happen to him, can't let them steal his freedom. Can't leave the other half of his heart to live without him.

He quickly goes to work picking at the rubber seal, peeling it away bit by bit. If he can just break the seal, he'll be able to get out of the casket so much easier! It's tedious work, though, and he's unable to sit up, so there's only a small area he can work on. He can feel the carbon dioxide building up in his lungs, causing him to become dizzy and disoriented. Joe begins reciting prayers and poems in his head to keep focus, but it's becoming harder and harder to remember the words. His last thought before he suffocates is that it was much so easier to break out of wooden coffins.

After that, it's a little hopeless. Joe revives, breathes in nothing but carbon dioxide, and suffocates quickly, over and over again. Each time it's harder and harder to remember where he is, what he's supposed to be doing. He starts screaming again, sobbing, calling out for Nicky, for Andy and Booker. His fingernails are broken and his fingertips are bloody. And he's so incredibly, unforgivably alone.

“You know, Nicky, staring at me like that won't help us find him faster,” Booker says, glaring at the other man over the top of his radio and telephone setup.

“Keep looking,” Nicky all but growls back. His fists are clenched so tight that his fingernails are cutting into his skin. He feels like a straining hound on the end of its lead, desperate to lunge, to chase, to kill. The other half of his heart is out there, somewhere, having God only knows what happen to him, and he's being forced to sit here and wait while Booker fiddles with his contraptions! Can't Booker tell that the lack of Joe is strangling him?

He looks over to Andy pleadingly, desperately. Surely she can understand the agony he's going through. But Andy refuses to look at him. His blood boils. Nicky knows that he should be sympathetic, that this situation must give Andy horrible memories of losing Quyhn, but there is no room for any more emotions inside him. He bites down on his forearm to hold back a furious scream.

“There we go! Got it!”

Nicky scrambles over to Booker, his heart rattling against his ribcage.

“What is it? What have you found? Did you find him?”

“Well, no, but -”

“THEN WHAT IS THE POINT?” he screams, and Booker cowers, shrinking into his chair. Nicky immediately regrets his outburst, the terrified look on the other man's face not giving him any satisfaction, not giving him what he needs so desperately.

“Calm down, Nicky,” Andy says, looking over at the two of them. “Getting angry doesn't save him any faster, either.” She stands up. “What did you find, Book?”

“According to my contacts, the moving van we saw is from a company that's owned by a religious organization. Belleview Ministries. Operates out of San Antonio, Texas. They also run a funeral home and a quick-set cement company.”

“Interesting list of enterprises,” Andy says.

“Yes,” Nicky replies. “But what would a church want with us? With Joe?”

“They're Millenialists. Believe they can track when the world's going to end,” Booker continues. Nicky rolls his eyes. Of course, another splintering branch of Christianity. Things had been so much easier before the Protestant Reformation.

“All their paraphenalia tracks it to May 29, 1989. Three weeks from now.”

“And they think we have some part in it?”

“Looks like it.”

Nicky and Andy look at eachother. He can see the pain on her face, the sympathy mixed with cruel coincidence. It's too similar, too much like the circumstances under which they lost Quyhn. It must be eating her alive, the guilt and anguish, the memories.

“Let's go, then,” she says abruptly. “If they're from San Antonio, that's probably where they're taking him.”

“But we still don't have enough information!” Booker says, but the combined glares from Andy and Nicky quickly shut him up.

“We can get there by noon tomorrow if we push it,” he continues, quieter now, but Andy and Nicky are already halfway out the door, Nicky with a sword on his hip and another strapped across his back. They will find Joe. He will do whatever he has to. They will not fail this time. They can't. He won't allow it. And he knows that Andy won't either. He won't breathe again until Joe is safe.

In between life and death, Joe is dreaming. Well, hallucinating is the proper term, but he can barely tell if he's awake anymore. Nicky is laying beside him, peacefully sleeping, beautiful in repose. He's the most gorgeous thing that Joe ever has or will ever see, and he is so eternally grateful to have him. Joe reaches out to touch him, but all he feels is cold steel, not the soft, warm skin of his beloved. He sobs and dies again, barely noticing his transport pulling to a stop.

The Texas heat is nearly visible in the way it comes off the pavement in shimmering waves. Joe would probably wax poetic about it, Nicky thinks as his breathing becomes labored. And he would laugh and call Joe a hopeless, incurable romantic and they would kiss and everything would be right in his world again. It's been four agonizing days since his heart was ripped in half, the air he breathes sucked away. Nothing will ever be okay again until he has his beloved back in his arms.

The cement operation and moving company are both empty, and Nicky seethes with rage, taking his anger out on the tires of a few of the vans. Andy is looking more hopeless and haggard by the minute, her eyes not focusing on either him or Booker, but somewhere off to a distant shoreline and a metal prison.

“Here, I found an invoice,” Booker offers, handing it to Nicky. “It's a delivery of one casket to 1239 Belleview Street. And back at the cement company, their most recent delivery was to the same location.”  
“Why would they transport a casket in a -” Andy's voice trails off, and for the first time in days, she looks Nicky directly in the eye. Nicky feels dizzy. This is far worse than they anticipated. So indescribably worse. It takes less than a minute for them to get back to the car and peel out of the parking lot.

1239 Belleview is an ugly, boxy yellow building with a sign out front declaring it “Belleview Ministries Fellowship Hall.” Right out front in the jam-packed parking lot sits the same moving van they saw when Joe first disappeared, identifiable by its busted tailgate. When Booker undoes the latch on the back, there's nothing in there. Nicky almost screams again, but there is no air in his lungs without Joe.

It takes all Nicky's willpower to not start slaughtering people left and right as they enter the church. Instead, he strides up straight to the pulpit and pulls his sword on the man standing there. The man's boyish face shows no fear, though the entire congregation gasps and several people shout “NO!” but a quickly shushed by Andy and Booker cocking their guns.

“Where is he?” Nicky demands through clenched teeth. “Where have you taken him?”

The man extends his arms, a smug and knowing smile on his face.

“Brothers and Sisters,” he says. “As you can see, Hell's creatures have come to reclaim their own. But fear not, as James says, submit yourself to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.”

Nicky's stomach churns at hearing scripture out of this man's mouth. So he thinks them demons, creatures of Hell? How can someone look at Joe and not see that he is a gift from God, the blazing holy sun to Nicky's moon? The hubris and blindness of false prophets almost takes his breath away.

“Flee from this,” he says, and slits the man's throat, unleashing chaos upon the congregation.

People scream and surge in all directions, some crying “Father Gabriel!”, others cowering under the pews. Several men in tactical jackets emblazoned with yellow crosses pull rifles and pistols from under them and fire at Nicky. He takes a bullet to the shoulder and another in his hip, sending him buckling to the floor, but only for a few moments. As he gets to his feet, he hears them holler as Andy and Booker return fire.

He joins in the fight, releasing his pent-up fury on the men until they all lie twitching in pools of their own blood. All that's in his head is the thumping bass beat of “die, die, DIE,” and it feels so much better than the anguish and terror he's been feeling for the last four days. He looks over to Booker, who's kneeling down to speak to the dying preacher. In response, the man points a shaking finger towards the outside and rasps, “Behind the church....we will entomb the demon forever....gain favor with the Almighty....” He looks like he's about to say more but he's silenced with a bullet to the forehead from Andy.

“You stay here to make sure nobody's coming with backup,” she says to Booker, who nods. “Nicky and I will go and get Joe.”

Nicky looks at Andy. He can tell she's struggling to stay present, to not think of how a similar situation turned out. Trying not to think about Quyhn, miles under the ocean. But she returns his gaze and her eyes are steely with determination, with intent. She'll be okay. She always is.

Nicky shoots the driver of the cement truck without a second thought as they round the back of the church. There's a deep hole dug, and they're pouring cement in, a metal casket barely visible. Nicky screams now, diving towards the hole as Andy kills the other workers. The one person who can make him feel like he's not suffocating right now is in that casket, stolen away from him and being entombed. He digs through the wet cement as it continues to pour in, soaking him and dragging him downwards. He's moving on pure instinct, and the only thing on his mind is getting to Joe before it's too late and he's lost forever. He tugs desperately at the lid of the casket, yelling in every language he's ever known.

“Here, try this,” Andy says. She holds out her labyrs to him, and he takes it with a nod. Joe would probably think there was something symbolic about that, but all Nicky thinks about is how he hopes he doesn't end up hurting his beloved. He raises the axe, swings. CLANG! It dents the lid, but not enough. Again, he swings. CLANG! And again, and again, and again. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Until something pops and he hears pressure being released. He tries the lid again, and Joe gasps like he's been underwater. Nicky pulls him into his arms, and he can finally, finally breathe again.


End file.
